Life Mix

Hi friends,

I've just returned from a lovely Fourth of July weekend in Detroit.  This trip convinced me that July 4 is my favorite holiday.  There's no expectation or stress or arguing over when to spend time with whom.  Unlike Christmas break, I don't spend half the break in bed recovering from school and hiding from the cold.  On good old Independence day I needn't plan my menu and send invitations two months in advance.  It's just a lovely day of reflection and relaxation spent in the company of friends and family.  This year my sis and I each invited whoever was free. Our small party took the paddle boat around the lake, ate, and played bocce ball before roasting marshmallows over a bonfire, enduring my mother's tall tales, and watching neighbors light illegal fireworks.  What could be better?

It was great to spend time with my sis while she's starting her first year of residency.  I also played some tennis with my  parents, talked to my bro on the phone about America's impending fiscal doom, went to City Fest downtown and had an impromptu Food in the Hood, and saw Wall-E (which I highly recommend).  I hope your weekend celebrations of the nation's independence were equally as pleasurable and festive.

And now to the point: During my trip, Patrick reminded me of something cool that he and his friends did last summer.  They all made Life Mix CD's and sent them around to each other.  It's a pretty simple concept - create a soundtrack which encompasses your life thus far.  Alas, in light of my attempts today, the Life Mix is a dauntingly complex task.  But I think it'll be really fun.  So I wanted to propose that we all make one this summer.  I know everyone's busy, but it's summer, I mean, how busy can you really be?  I guess some of his friends went as far as making CD jackets and writing descriptions for each song/time period.  I beseech you to be as creative as you please.

Let me know if you're in.

Much love always,

-k

A fortnight and a half

Hello dear friends,

The third week of my New Orleans adventure is coming to a close. I apologize for my infrequent posts - apparently computer chargers die in humidity. Luckily I live across the street from the Loyola library so I've been using the computers here.

A few comments on work and friends (as per Brian's request):

Work
I work at a non-profit organization called NHS which serves a number of functions. First, NHS teaches gives homeownership counseling and teaches financial fitness classes. Second, NHS does construction management and real estate development. Finally, NHS has a Community Building Initiative (CBI). That's the department I'm in.

My supervisor also has a Masters in Planning and he's really cool, as is everyone else at NHS. So far we've done a survey of 1200 housing conditions in the Freret neighborhood. On Monday Eddie Izzard (the comedian) did a benefit concert for NHS. We are also working with a group of architects called Design Corps, who are designing and building a new bus shelter for Freret street. My job involves attending a lot of community meetings and giving a lot of presentations. Tomorrow I'm starting a more independent project. NHS recently bought a building which needs to be renovated. I'm going to do some renderings of the re-designed building for a capital campaign. I'm also creating urban design guidelines for Freret Street.

Friends
One other student from my program is down here this summer - my friend Matt. He is working for NORA - the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. There are a bunch of interns working for the city who I've met and hung out with once or twice. I've also hung out with the Design Corps kids a few times. They're all in their Masters program too and pretty cool.

Moving to a new city is a fun adventure, but, as I'm sure you all know, it takes a while to really settle in and make good friends. Weekends have been fun so far - bars and bands and good times, but lots of small talk and mingling. This Saturday I'm heading to the beach with Matt and some others. It should be a good time.

Life in General
My average day involves going to work, coming home, eating dinner, running, cold showering and then reading. I've read "The Moviegoer" by Walker Percy and "Old Men at Midnight" by Chaim Potok. I just started "Women in Love" by D.H. Lawrence. It's a quiet life. I like the independence and the free time to think. But, conversely, and necessarily, it's a bit lonely.

I actually went to church last Sunday - First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans. I think I'll go again this Sunday but I'll try a different church. I think I'll dabble in Catholicism since New Orleans is such a Catholic city.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

-k

First Impressions

I'm writing from my new apartment in New Orleans. There's much to say about this town and I don't quite know where to begin. I wrote a few thoughts in my sketchbook yesterday so I'll start there:

This city is more beautiful than any other I've ever encountered. The trees are majestic and magical, the houses are unique and hospitable. The city emanates a charm which is sincere and unpretentious. Life ambles amiably - not concerned or even aware of the pace at which the rest of the world travels. 'Folks' smile when you pass on the street and make conversation when you sit next to them on the streetcar. Nola is an anomaly. It engages and delights all of your senses without overwhelming them (like a Wes Anderson movie compared to Baz Luhrman). Surely heaven must feel a bit like this place.

But beneath this surface so lovely (and legitimately so) lurks a deep well of sorrow and fear. NO's history seems to divide into two eras: before the storm and after the storm. (One food writer for the Times-Picayune dated his article June 10, A.D. 3 - After the Deluge). It's difficult to even reference the city without placing it in one of these two contexts. I wonder if people get tired of talking about it. I wonder if they just want to forget the disaster that so thoroughly destroyed (and continues to destroy) this place. But the levees still aren't rebuilt properly and a new hurricane season has arrived. Friends who left BS have yet to return. Lives and homes and businesses were lost and never regained. So much devastation - the equivalent of which this country has rarely seen - takes far more than three years to repair.

I read the newspaper today and the main three articles all pertained to Katrina. A to-do list for planning for your family's evacuation took up a whole page. The Army Corps of Engineers remain the bad guys as the levees they're currently building leak. The Corps assures the people that it's fine, but that's what they said last time... There's little trust in the government. Even after three years, the mayor doesn't have a citywide evacuation plan. He says everyone should have their own evacuation plan. Well that should've been the case last time too, but if people are poor and don't have cars they're out of luck. How hard is it to plan to mobilize a mass bus fleet? A few friends and I discussed this yesterday and realized the three of us could probably comprise a feasible plan in a few hours. Bureaucracy is ridiculous.

It would be hard to rebuild a life here if you're not sure it won't just be destroyed again.

But all this sad stuff is balanced by the good that's going on. People are empowered here. They attend neighborhood meetings, they want to know what the city government is doing, and they want to hold the city accountable. Before the storm, folks didn't know they could have a say. Now they're saying it. It's astounding how many efforts bubble up from grassroots. New Orleanians are truly indomitable. They fight for rebirth because there is so much to save here.

My one regret is this: Despite the genuine hospitality and kindness of New Orleanians, an outsider can never become one. Perhaps after many years you can work your way in, but people will always ask "Where you from?" Obviously I don't expect to call myself a local after only a week. But if I did move here for the long run, I wonder if I'd ever be fully accepted. I don't begrudge the locals for it - being "from here" is a point of pride that I wouldn't like to share with outsiders either.

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Regarding my life, I work about a mile from home. I walk or ride my bike to work. There's a lovely park right near my house - Audubon Park - where I go for runs and bike rides. (I biked 8 miles today and ran 5.6 Woo hoo!) There are a bunch of cafe's and shops and a Whole Foods on Magazine Street which is also close by. When I want to go downtown I ride the streetcar on St. Charles Street. My apartment is on the second floor of a house in Uptown. It has high ceilings and I have two roommates. The girl goes to Loyola for jazz saxophone and has a puppy. The boy is an mba student from Duke who's interning with a hospital. There's plenty of space for visitors :) It's hot down here but I haven't melted yet. July may be a different story. The food here is amazing. You would love it.

I miss you. Come see me.

-k

Happy Summer everyone!

I'm writing from dear old Michigan. I apologize for my absence - since school ended I tried to take a break from the computer. (My eyesight is officially worse as a result of my last year. Boo.)

These last few weeks have been full of good things. I had tons of fun in Philly before flying to Chicago for my sister's graduation from medical school. We had a party there with all my cousins including bocce ball and running bases. To use a phrase from old days: "good times." Since getting back to the D I've met up with old friends and just generally chilled out. I love Detroit in the summer and am sincerely sad that I can't stay longer. Alas, adventures await.

I forgot to mention I got a job. Although it was so late in the game, it was worth the wait. I'm going back to New Orleans for the summer. Hurray! I leave at the end of this week. So if you need a vacation come stay with me. I promise it's the most magical place you'll ever visit.

What will I be doing there? I'm working with Neighborhood Housing Services through the Rockefeller Foundation. We'll be in a neighborhood with some pretty diverse residents (very wealthy and very poor) so our job will be to build consensus among these different stakeholders to create plans which benefit everyone, and ultimately prevent gentrification. Rents in New Orleans are actually pretty high (on par with Philadelphia or Chicago) due to the low supply, so another part of my job will be to track down the owners of abandoned or vacant properties, convince them to sell to NHS, and then rebuild those houses to give back to displaced residents. Finally I'll be doing some urban design work as well as general design stuff in CS3. So that's cool. I'm psyched.

Despite my overwhelming love for that city, I'm a little wary of spending a summer there. It's currently a mild 90 degrees, and it's only May. July's heat and the swampy mosquitoes might make it a city less pleasant than the one I visited in March. Oh well. When I talked to my boss about job specifics he asked if I was bringing a car. I said probably not. He said it might be a good idea "for groceries, or when it rains, or for evacuation purposes." Oh yeah. Hurricanes. I forgot about that. I naively feel like the worst hurricane already hit New Orleans. They can't get any more for a while right? Duh.

Anyway, as Isaac pointed out, I'll have to think of a clever interim name for my blog seeing as I won't be in Philly anymore. Suggestions appreciated.

I hope you're all having wonderful summer breaks, vacations, adventures, or at least learning a lot in studies and/or work.

Much love dear friends,
-k

And the first year comes to an end.

The semester is finally over. It came to a surprisingly triumphant but almost anti-climactic end. The last month has been wrought with things to do - each task awaited by another in an endless line. I honestly can't say I took a day off in the last four weeks. I've definitely never functioned on so little sleep; prob averaging one all-nighter a week, with a max of six hours any night - usually less. I gave my workshop presentation to the client and faculty jury on zero sleep. I finished our 90 page workshop book in three grueling days. And with one essay test for urban econ it was over. Thank God.

I took the last two days off to become a real person again. I explored the city at a leisurely pace. I saw them filming a movie with Owen Wilson and that guy from Grey's Anatomy (McSteamy I think? Jennifer Aniston is in it too but I didn't see her.) I browsed books with James in two bookstores. We found a garden on the top floor of the Kimmel Center. We ran into five other planners in Rittenhouse Square in the course of fifteen minutes. This is truly the smallest big city in the world. I forgot how Center City feels during the daytime. It's so bustling even in the middle of the week. Oh and I found a new favorite restaurant. I've made a point of trying new restaurants in Philly b/c it's a fun break that doesn't take too long. This one is called The Latest Dish and it's the first place that's really knocked my socks off. Other places have been good, quite good, but this was my fav. So come visit me and we'll go back. I went running the last couple days. I'm finding new music and listening to NPR again. I'm catching up on the headlines. I even watched Top Chef last night.

Today I slept in and read The Life of Pi in Rittenhouse. So far so good. Now I'm cleaning my room, getting my life in order, attempting to figure out where I'm going this summer, where I'm moving next fall, when I'll stop home in Detroit and how long I'll be there.

Cleaning out my school folders is deflating. So much work for what? a few pages that I organize into a clear, expandable file folder. I hate when an end result doesn't reflect everything that went into the product. Maybe the process counts. I hope so.

I do feel I've learned a lot this year. I've definitely worked hard. I think my skills show it. But what? This year doesn't feel like any other school year before. It's not a clean break I guess, because next fall is lingering just around the next corner. I'm not sad to leave friends because we all know we'll see each other in a few short months. It's not a momentous change heading into a new grade. It's just Masters Program Part II. Which is ok. I feel older this year - more comfortable in who I am and more familiar with my shortcomings. Maybe that sums it all up. I spent the first semester feeling uncertain. The second semester showed me who I am but no more about who I should be or who God is or what I should do in my life. Hopefully those things will come.

I do want to say thanks to all of you who helped me through this crazy year. Your thoughts, prayers, advice, words of wisdom and encouragement were highly appreciated. I also sincerely apologize for being a sub-par friend in many respects. I def didn't keep up like I should've. Please know it doesn't mean I don't love you, but that I'm bad at time management.

Anyway, I love you all. And wherever I go this summer, I hope you visit me or I can visit you.

<3

-K

Are you ever just swept away by everything?

Summer or the advent of summer does that to me. Trees that were sticks pop into flowers and then green - green everywhere. Blue skies, sunlight that's golden instead of white, breezes that carry some scent of the season, birds that make noise (too much noise), construction sounds, traffic and bustle, and people are out to enjoy it. I didn't know there were so many people. Three weeks ago campus had a smattering of bench-sitters and small crowds outside for smoke breaks. Now people are everywhere - laying on the lawn, crowding the benches, sitting on steps. We all want to be part of this recently-awakened buzz.

But more than that - what is it? I get sentimental this time of year. I'm reflective of the past year that's gone by, I anticipate the surprises and adventures that summer holds in store. I romantically envision some version of perfection that will surely be my next three months. So much is in store, so much is going on now, all of it's happening too fast to take it in or assess it or even understand and before I know it it'll all be lost. I hate missing out on everything-at-once moments. Spring is the best time to catch them and the easiest time to miss them b/c I'm always so busy with school.

Alas.

Forgive the disjointedness of my brief break from schoolwork.

Hey friends,

So another school year is coming to an end. It's crunch time, but not crunchy enough that I'm freakin' out yet (hence me writing this blog). In any case, I just realized I'm going to be home in about a month. It's going to be summer again. I simultaneously feel like summer just happened and that summer was a lifetime ago. I feel like I've lived about three lives in the last year: Calvin, summer, and Penn. I'm happy with the one I'm in now. I wouldn't want to go back to anything I've been before. I think I'm on the right track life-wise, even though I never anticipated the way things have shaken out. I never thought I'd doubt the things I've doubted. I never thought I'd decide what I've decided. Maybe the first lent itself to the second. This time around though I've owned my actions. I'm not lying anymore, to myself or anyone else. So word to that.

Who knows what summer holds? Waiting to hear back on an internship opportunity. Don't want to talk about it yet for fear of jinxing it. Trying to keep my hopes down. Sigh. Wherever I end up this summer, I don't know if I can handle any more lifetimes. So much change is overwhelming.

Despite the different lives, some patterns emerge. For example, I have a boy problem. I always thought I just fell into relationships without looking for them because I wasn't assertive enough to know what I wanted/didn't want. While I've become more discerning in my taste, it's no coincidence that I'm always in a relationship. Because I don't know how to be friends with girls I just become friends with guys. It's way easier, it makes more sense to me, I'm more comfortable. And then that always ends up somewhere. It's a strange deficiency. I could probably teach a class on dating but I need a class on making friends.

I'm having a hard time foreseeing my future. I'm failing to connect my present actions with possible future consequences. I'm living in the now. How lame that sounds. I don't even know how to picture a future or where or with whom.

Life goes by pretty fast. I always indulge myself in brief moments of perfection. I wish I was brave enough to look at the big picture.

Until we meet again,

-k